The present invention relates to the surgical lighting arts. It finds particular application in conjunction with mounting an auxiliary second spindle to a single ceiling plate supporting an existing first spindle in an operating room (OR) and will be described with particular reference thereto. It is to be appreciated, however, that the invention also finds application in conjunction with mounting other overhead secondary fixtures or devices to support systems that additionally support primary fixtures or devices and is not limited to the aforementioned OR application.
Typically, in an operating room setting, large, high lumen output lightheads are used to illuminate the surgical site. These rather large lightheads are supported on one or more jointed arms extending from a single central spindle attached to a ceiling plate. Each articulated arm is rotatable relative to the spindle and pivotable to allow independent positioning of the arms and their attached devices. The number of lightheads or other accessories (e.g., video monitors, EKG monitors) that can reasonably be supported in a stacked arrangement is limited by the height of the ceiling. Each additional support arm hub or accessory causes the central spindle to grow so that, the bottom end is lowered relative to the ceiling as additional arms are added. At some point, the length of the spindle presents an obstacle or hazard to those working in the OR.
When additional lightheads or accessories are desired, one option is to remove the existing ceiling plate that supports the central spindle and install a new ceiling plate adapted to support both the original central spindle as well as an auxiliary satellite spindle. This is only possible, however, in rooms with ceiling structures designed in advance for supporting the weight and moment of a two spindle system. In any case, the above procedure involves a major construction job during which time the operating room is removed from service.
The present invention provides a new and improved method and apparatus that overcomes the above referenced problems and others to provide an additional spindle utilizing an existing ceiling support.